Texas Monthly - Perryhttp://www.texasmonthly.com/tags/perry
enPerry Unexcited About Madonna's Boy Scouts Costumehttp://www.texasmonthly.com/story/perry-unexcited-about-madonnas-boy-scouts-costume
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Don&#8217;t tell me: former Eagle Scout Rick Perry was none too pleased with Madonna&#8217;s pseudo-controversial <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/17/madonna-boy-scouts-anderson-cooper-glaad_n_2894081.html">statement</a> about the Boy Scouts of America.</p>
<p>Dressed in a blue Scout uniform, the pop singer used the occasion of the 24th annual GLAAD Awards March 16 to speak out against, among other things, the BSA policy banning gay Scouts and troop leaders.&nbsp;<span>“I can build a fire,” Madonna said. “I know how to pitch a tent&#8230; . Most importantly, I know how to scout for boys. I think they should change their stupid rules.”</span></p>
<p>Perry weighed in on the singer&#8217;s costumed antics in an interview with his buddy Glenn Beck on the latter&#8217;s radio <a href="http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/03/19/governor-rick-perry-not-happy-with-madonna-for-wearing-boy-scout-outfit-to-glaad/">program</a> March 19. When asked about his recent&nbsp;<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/perry-cpac-candidate-i-am-no-more">appearance</a>&nbsp;at the Conservative Political Action Conference,&nbsp;Perry told Beck that it was more exciting than Madonna&#8217;s award show spectacle, <a href="http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/03/rick-perry-takes-on-madonna-over-her-boy-scouts-fashion-statement/">wrote</a> the <em>Houston Chronicle</em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>The governor&nbsp;</span>thought Madonna&#8217;s remarks were flippant. “It’s fascinating that someone would make that kind of gratuitous shot at an organization that has probably done as much to promote young men to the type of values that the vast majority of the people in this country aspire to,” said Perry.</p>
<p>The BSA&#8217;s <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/what-boy-scout">policies</a>&nbsp;continued to incite controversy after the organization, waffling on its current strance,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/polling-boy-scouts-america">polled</a>&nbsp;its members.</p>
<p>Perry, an Eagle Scout, wrote the 2008 book <span><em>On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For, </em>which&nbsp;supports the traditional values of the BSA including banning openly gay members and Scout leaders, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/02/rick-perry-boy-scouts-gay-policy_n_2607353.html">wrote</a> the <em>Huffington Post</em>.</span>&nbsp;In February, Perry reiterated this position before a gathering of the&nbsp;<span>Texas Scouts’ 64th annual Report to State in the Texas House of Representatives.&nbsp;<span>“I think most people see absolutely no reason to change the position and neither do I,” said Perry.</span></span></p>
<p><span>Perry holds individuals who follow the path of the BSA in high esteem, especially those top troopers, the Eagle Scouts. He told Beck how he gives Eagle Scouts preference when looking at applicants’ resumes:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span>I know that as a young man they made a decision to follow a long and arduous path to reach that Eagle Scout award and that if they went through that long process between the ages of 10 and 15—16 years old, that those qualities, those characteristics, those values are still very much alive in that young man who’s asking to work for you and that’s the kind of people I want surrounding me.&nbsp; That’s the type of individuals I want to be working with and I’m counting on to take the great State of Texas forward.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>But should boys be refused the Eagle Scout award on the basis of their sexuality? How many are marginalized who might otherwise help Governor Perry take Texas forward?</p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:04:28 +0000Ross Dubois54301 at http://www.texasmonthly.comhttp://www.texasmonthly.com/story/perry-unexcited-about-madonnas-boy-scouts-costume#commentsPutting things in perspectivehttp://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/putting-things-perspective
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>With the raging debate over Texas’ Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund, it’s interesting to take a second look at the Texas Workforce Commission’s decision– at Gov. Rick Perry’s urging – to award a $90 million tax cut to employers.</p>
<p>First, from Perry’s March 2008 press release:</p>
<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><span><em>Gov. Rick Perry today announced that an estimated 370,000 Texas businesses will be getting a tax cut of $90 million, thanks to the state’s strong economy and low unemployment. “I believe in truth-in-budgeting: when government levies a tax and collects more money than is needed, we must either stop collecting the tax, return the money or both,” said Gov. Perry. “Thanks to our healthy economy and low unemployment rate last year, the state collected more money for the unemployment trust fund than we need, which is why I’m directing the state to bring that tax to a screeching halt for this year.” The tax cut will come in the form of a one-year suspension of the Unemployment Insurance (<span class="caps">UI</span>) replenishment tax. An estimated 370,000 Texas businesses will be eligible for the tax cut, which will save employers $90 million. The Texas Workforce Commission (<span class="caps">TWC</span>) approved the suspension of the tax after reviewing employment figures and economic forecasts for Texas and determined there were sufficient reserves to meet unemployment obligations for 2008.</em></span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Next, from a transcript of the <span class="caps">TWC</span> meeting in Commissioner Ron Lehman made a motion to grant the tax break, Commissioner Ronald G. Congleton opposed it and Commissioner Diane Rath voted for it, with reservations:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">
<!--StartFragment--></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em>Congleton: Because of my fiduciary duty to the Trust Fund and the protection of 12 million working people and my doubts about the national economy right now, I have to vote no on this.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em>Rath: I will tell you it is with deep concern because of the increase in the unemployment rate, the increase payout rates, the national economic situation, and the indications we are seeing here in Texas. However, the governor supports this and I certainly support his position. So with that, we’ll eliminate the .12 percent for the replinishment tax, notify the employers as soon as possible.</em></p>
<p>Fast forward to Wednesday, when Commissioner Tom Pauken, in testimony before the Senate Nominations Committee, painted a bleak picture of the financial solvency of the Trust Fund: it’ll be broke by October, best case scenario.</p>
<!--more--><p>
<strong>A clarification: </strong>I wrote that the claims being paid now are 120 percent of where the amount being paid last year; it’s actually the number of <strong>new claimaints </strong>asking for help this week, which according to Pauken, is actually approaching 130 percent of the number of folks in the system at this point last year.</p>
<p>Given those stark figures, Pauken, who mentioned to committee members that he’s especially sympathetic to unemployed workers as his own son is now job-hunting, believes that some sort of bi-partisan compromise is essential on the stimulus money issue. Gov. Perry and Texas Association of Business president Bill Hammond object to the federal help because they fear it will come with “strings,” i.e. change eligibility so that more laid-off workers will be eligible for help from the Trust Fund. Pauken told me today he believes that if Texas segregates the federal money – and follows all federal stipulations – it should be free to revert to its old practices when it runs out of the federal money.</p>
<p>“I’m trying to work out a compromise in which we do change (eligibility) but that doesn’t mean that we have to do it forever,” Pauken said. “Once it (the federal money) is gone, they shouldn’t be able to dictate things.”</p>
<p>Bill Hammond has posted his arguments against a temporary change in eligibility standards in the comments section for the previous post. While Hammond has been roundly criticized for comparing extending unemployment help to laid off workers to a drug dealer giving free product to create more addicts, his analogy might have been borrowed from Perry.</p>
<p>Here’s what Perry told the Wall Street Journal this week with regard to stimulus money as it relates to all government programs, particularly entitlement programs: “If this expands entitlements, we will not accept it. This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs.”</p>
<p>Perhaps Perry feels differently about compensation for laid-off workers, since it is an insurance program, not an entitlement program, but he has failed to treat the two differently in his public comments about the stimulus.</p>
<p>Ironically, the addiction problem was worrying Diane Rath when she voted for the $90 million tax break for Texas businesses. She was afraid employers wouldn’t get the message that this was a limited deal, and would expect the break to go on forever. From the transcript of the <span class="caps">TWC</span> meeting in March, 2008:</p>
<p>Rath: I will say we will have to be extraordinarily careful with the wording with the notice that is sent out so that employers understand this is not a tax cut but is a one-time occurrence only and that next December when their tax notices are again sent out if the Trust Fund is not in the situation where this can again occur that it will not be a tax inrease occurring because my deep fear is that next December employers will perceive a tax increase when the elimination is not able to occur again, coupled with many employers having increased experience rated employers and the economy right now and the increasing layoffs and claims that we continue to see.</p>
<p>Sounds to me like she knew the tax break was a bad idea.</p>
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